


days of wine and roses

by KnifingGale, Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492



Series: monsters & men [1]
Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Fem!Arno - Freeform, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pairings to be added, Rule 63
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 04:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13942908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnifingGale/pseuds/KnifingGale, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492/pseuds/Maria_and_Aguilars_Codex_1492





	days of wine and roses

* * *

_“There are things you can’t fight, acts of God. You see a hurricane coming, you have to get out of the way...”_

\- **Raleigh Becket**

* * *

Hurricanes, true forces of nature at work, was something no one could fight. And yet there were people that tried in futility to fight against the hurricanes that battered them.

Hustled in the corner of a library with a book well beyond her years, Arno had propped the book up against her knee as she tried to decipher the strange words that had come up over the report. One of her schoolmates had talked about how there people that had once _hunted_ hurricanes. He was jeered at by her fellow six year old classmates.

But a spark of curiosity had ignitied in her at that moment. Was it true? Had people once fought against the unstoppable?

As Arno truly did look in between the lines and trying hard to understand the context of words like ‘cloud-seeding’ and ‘iodine’, realization began to dawn on her. As she expected, the experiment- _Project Stormfury_ -had failed with only countless of dollars being poured into it.

But, still, they tried.

Why?

It was the one thing Arno truly didn’t grasp in her mind. Why would they fight against the unstoppable?

“-Arno!” Arno peered up from the heavy stack of papers she had printed out from the library’s printer. The sudden call of her name loud and harsh in the library’s quiet ambience of shuffling pages and clicks of computer mouses.

“Father?” she called out questionly, her voice lowering to a whisper quickly. _Library rules_ , she reminded herself. Memories of the librarian’s scolding prickled at her conscience.

“Arno,” Dressed formally, her father walked towards her as he ignored the harsh hissing of the librarian.

“She’s mean,” Arno remarked innocently much to her father’s amusment as he chuckled at her words.

“She is,” Her father said distractedly before his eyes suddenly focused, “Arno, I need to meet someone at a party-”

“A friend?”

“No,” He said softly, “An acquaintance.”

“Acquaintance?” The word falling from her lips in a botched attempt to say it. She held the massive stack of papers with two hand to her chest.

“Say it after me,” He started before slowly pronouncing the word, “Ac-quaint-ance.”

“Ac-quaint-ance,” Arno made a face at the still botched word and breathed in deeply. 

“Acquaintance.” she said quickly.

“Good,” Her father praised lightly before ruffling her hair. Arno breathed out heavily, as her bangs were blown away from her eyes.

“Now, let’s get to the party.” Arno sighed. Her father always went to boring events with the grownups only talking to each other. The only ones who would talk to her were her father’s relatives, who would pinch her cheeks tightly and call her ‘cute’.

With luck on her side, Arno would find a nice place in the corner- _away from her relatives_ \- and finish reading the stack of papers in her hands.

“Yes, father.”

But, most of all, she would get the answer to her question:

Why?

* * *

Arno didn't even bother to hide the dramatic groan she let out as her father's relatives beamed at them with glasses of sparkling fluid in their hands. Fine fabrics of crimson and black brushed against the hall's floor as they made their way over to the two. 

"Father," she said in a near desperate plea. Her father knew just as well as her that his relatives would fawn over her and pinch her cheeks.

"Don't stray too far," he lightly reminded with an amused look in his eyes. Arno nearly frowned. His family was  _cruel_ with their merciless cheek pinching and teasing.

"Yes, father." Arno replied obediently with a relieved smile plastered on her face. _Saved from the wolves_ , she thought with glee. She was nearly bouncing on her feet at this point as she made her grand escape. 

"Arno?"

"I'll be at a meeting for some time. Look for your aunt and uncle if you need anything." _That won't be happening_ , she bit back. Arno only quickly and wordlessly nodded, impatience in the bounce of her step as she walked away.

The straps of the messenger bag pressed against her shoulder, and Arno was reminded of what she had wanted to do for the remainder of the part. Once again, the yet to be fully sated spark of curiosity burned brightly. She opened the bag slowly, mindful not to mess the stack of papers she carefully placed in the bag.

Her feet carried Arno to a rather secluded area with a lone chair by a window with sunlight gracing it nicely. She briefly noted the dark clouds on the horizon and wondered if her father had brought an umbrella. Hopefully so as she wouldn't want the papers to get ruined from the rain. 

Seating herself on the lone chair, Arno sighed contently and focused on the task at hand. Despite the big, confusing words in the text, Arno reminded herself of what she had been taught in English by her tutor. _Context_ , she almost chanted to herself. Focusing on what she _could_ understand, Arno's fingers deftly turned pages quickly as her eyes scanned through blacks of text.

She caught onto repeated words such as 'failure', 'fraudulent', and 'ineffective'. The once lengthy and rather intimidating report seemed lesser now that she began to get a grasp on its language-

"What are you reading?" A feminine voice suddenly asked her. The voice was accented-like hers-with a rather articulate tone. Arno froze in her reading, caught off guard by the sudden question and newcomer. Her eyes stayed glued to the small text in front of her. 

"A report," she said vaguely.

"On what?" The girl persisted. Arno felt the curiosity in her burn to look up, not to mention it was rude not to look people in the eye. Her father had once told her of that. Finally, Arno mustered up the courage to tear her eyes away from the papers and looked up. 

Fiery crimson was what greeted her eyes in a shock of color. The next was blue eyes-like the sky-that looked curiously at her with a slightly impatient look.

"...Project Stormfury." Arno finally confessed, a part of her nervous of what would come next. Would the girl make fun of her accent? Or would she tease her about reading the report-

Arno's racing thoughts were cut off by one word from the girl.

"Interesting," she remarked before her lips curled up in a smile. Not condescending or pitying but  _genuine_. 

"Would...you like to hear about it?" Arno offered hesitantly. Her grip tightened on the stack of papers resting in her lap. Two minds were better than one, Arno reminded herself. Perhaps, she would get the answer to the question.

"Please do," The girl smiled, "May I know your name first?"

"Arno." She introduced herself.

"Elise," The girl- _Elise_ \- returned in favor before grinning once more, "Now, tell me more about this Project Stormfury."


End file.
